ABSTRACT
This chapter critically examines the public discourses on suicide and suicide management in East Asia. It rst presents recent trends in the advanced societies of Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, particularly highlighting the disproportionate number of suicides completed by older people and, increasingly so, by adolescents. A combination of socio-economic, socio-cultural and socio-spiritual factors may account for the high incidences among these two groups, not least because of the apparent emotional anguish derived from increasing segregation, decreasing mental health and diminishing communal support. Factors and characteristics distinctively associated with those at risk of suicide and the effects on family survivors are explored. The various dimensions of suicide are also considered using traditional belief and religious systems of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. Despite some of these prevailing ideologies, which ridicule any form of bodily self-harm, suicide rates continue to be high, reecting the gravity of mental, psychosocial and spiritual duress faced by the people of developed East Asia. This chapter closes with a synopsis of the various public health initiatives undertaken for raising awareness and promoting suicide prevention in the region, with recommendations to cultivate compassionate communities for the management of suicide and suicidal loss.
